Our Impact

Denver Learning Landscapes

From 2000 to 2012, Denver Public Schools (DPS) converted 99 elementary schoolyards encompassing 306 acres to Learning Landscapes. Children & Nature Network funded a statistical analysis conducted by The Big SandBox, Inc. and Autocase Economic Advisory to estimate effects of Learning Landscapes on children’s learning, environment, health and wellness, and DPS-related economic outcomes. You can find our report here.

Extended Learning Outdoors (ELO)

The ELO program creates an opportunity for virtual and real worlds to create a learning environment for children. We use technology and sensory equipment to connect support STEM education outdoors.

Paint4Play

P4P provides an opportunity for kids, their school community, and their neighborhood to gather, socialize, plan, and design an art project for an asphalt schoolyard. The reclaiming of these neglected barren spaces is a healing process that culminates in a day-long celebration of food, music and painting. This collective work of art endures as a symbol of future unity, progress and wholeness.  Two schools, Tanner G. Duckrey and George W. Nebinger have participated and the continue to raise funds for their schoolyards.

Schoolyard/Parks Exchange Program

The TBS Schoolyard/Parts Exchange Program partners with graduate students studying landscape architecture to Philadelphia and New Orleans for an immersive experience where they spend time with students, families and schools to reimagine their schoolyard/play spots. The graduate students participate in a week long program where they will work with communities to create a site and redevelopment schoolyard/play space plan. To date, the University of Colorado and Iowa State University have participated and we hope to grow the effort to other institutions.

Elevate

Dig Philly partners with local public schools, community leaders, parents, students and families to create opportunities for communities to voice their ideas and maintain long-term relationships that allow community members to manage green spaces in their neighborhoods. If this project is successful, Philadelphia will be the first city to transform schoolyards with green infrastructure into multi-use facilities that serve and educate the community and protect the environment.

Denver Learning Landscapes

A large scale green schoolyard conversion project in Denver illustrates the benefits of green schoolyards. From 2000 to 2012, Denver Public Schools (DPS) converted 99 elementary schoolyards encompassing 306 acres to Learning Landscapes.  Learning Landscapes combine natural elements, spaces for physical activity and creative play, and educational elements such as historical timelines and quotations to help children learn as they play. Distinctive features of Learning Landscapes include outdoor classroom and STEM elements, grass playing fields, vegetable gardens, and nature play and habitat areas.

In 2021, Children & Nature Network funded a statistical analysis conducted by The Big SandBox, Inc. and Autocase Economic Advisory to estimate effects of Learning Landscapes on children’s learning, environment, health and wellness, and DPS-related economic outcomes. Several small studies investigate the relationship between green schoolyards and outcomes within one domain, but the Denver study is the first to use longitudinal data from a districtwide green schoolyard conversion project in a large urban school district to estimate effects across multiple domains.